AP mode not working on Sony A7rv

[Aby]

Hello,

Seeking advice. The AP mode will not change the aperture. The dial is working fine. I have checked all settings and even did a factory reset. When I switch the dial to AP, the shutter speed change, the F stop remains fixed at 20. The ISO remains the same. The compensation +/- changes. Any ideas what is going wrong?

[Olaf W.]

Welcome to our forum. What’s the AP mode? Aperture priority? You select the aperture then and the camera changes the shutter speed.

[Aby]

Thank you for the welcome. My apologies as I was not very clear in my post. I was referring to the A mode, Aperture priority mode. It does not let me adjust the aperture and stays locked on F20.

[Olaf W.]

Which lens are you using? Did you try to remove an reattach the lens?

[Aby]

I am using 28-70 and 70-200 and the problem happens for both 😢

[Olaf W.]

Does the aperture setting work in manual mode? And, try to use the other wheel. Don’t ask me why but my a7ii switches between front and rear wheels when changing from M to A 

[FunWithCameras]

You can control which dial is used for which parameter. In M it defaults to a particular assignment of aperture and shutter (I think Aperture is front dial). In A I think the default is both dials control aperture (again, you can change this).

There have been times when I have thought a dial wasn’t working, but the answer was that I already had the lens wide open, so any attempt to open it further was ignored (I think the camera was screaming at me “go buy another lens if you want it wider than this!”). In my defence, I had forgotten that I had the 1.4x attached, and that makes it hard to open up wider than f/4 on the 70-200 f/2.8!

My strong recommendation is: when the dial appears not to be working, try turning it the opposite direction - this will tell you immediately if you’d reached the limit. It also lets you know if you’d switched the direction of the dials (yet another thing you can change).

[Snofru]

Are you sure that the aperture ring on your lenses is set on "A"?

[Aby]

Thank you for all of the advice. The dial is definitely set to A. If I move the wheel left or right the aperture remains fixed at f22. I have tried changing the iso and no change with aperture for either lens. The aperture does change in manual mode. It is frustrating me. I wonder if there is a setting in the menu that is blocking this?

[Aby]

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Aby]

This is what displays on the camera 

[Olaf W.]

2 hours ago, Aby said:

move the wheel

Did you try both wheels?

[Aby]

Yes I did try both wheels. The second wheel only seems to move the  exposure compensation 

[Olaf W.]

Exposure compensation should be controlled by the top right wheel. 

[Paradox.db.3]

I'm no expert in this camera (or even in this mode as I don't use it at all) but have you tried a factory reset?

[Aby]

You are not going to believe what the issue is and it’s an easy fix. If the lens is not on A, Aperture priority on the camera will not work. I have now locked the aperture on the lens. 
 

Has anyone else had this issue?

[Pieter]

8 hours ago, Aby said:

If the lens is not on A, Aperture priority on the camera will not work.

Yes, if aperture is set on the lens, that's the aperture that's being used. You can't override it with the aperture dial on the camera.

[Aby]

I never knew that and thought there was a problem with my new camera! Phew. Lesson learned 

[Olaf W.]

Neither did I. It‘s quite a curious implementation of aperture mode where you can’t set the aperture at the lens…

[FunWithCameras]

9 hours ago, Olaf W. said:

Neither did I. It‘s quite a curious implementation of aperture mode where you can’t set the aperture at the lens…

I disagree.

If the LENS is not on A, then the aperture ring on the lens controls the aperture. That's how aperture rings are expected to work - Nikkor lenses work that way, too. I would expect the aperture ring to work like that. Aperture priority still works, but the aperture is set on the lens, not using a dial on the camera. Maybe I find this easier to understand after using a Voigtlander lens, where the aperture ring is the ONLY way to set the aperture - they work beautifully in A mode, as long as you set the aperture using the aperture ring on the lens.

Once you put the aperture ring on the lens on A, then the aperture can be controlled (except on a Voigtlander!)  by a dial on the camera in M or A modes. In green rectangle, P, and S modes you don't control the aperture.

The OP was asked by Snoflu on 22 November if the aperture ring was set to A...

Also, we might want to clarify that the OP understands what is meant by "both dials" - there are two dials at the back of the camera - the left one is plain black, and is the "rear dial"; the right one is the Exposure Compensation dial by default (but can be customised). There is a third dial at the front of the grip below the shutter button - that is the "front dial". When someone asks if you have tried moving "both dials" they usually mean the "front" and "rear" dials (the left rear dial, not the right rear dial).